1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to systems and methods for retrievably storing the results of an age calculation or other authorization determination.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many situations exist in which an online merchant or other electronic commerce site is legally obligated to control the sale or access to certain goods or services by ensuring that customers meet a minimum age limit or are otherwise authorized to purchase or access the good or service. For example, online sites that sell alcohol or tobacco products, fireworks, firearms, adult-content literature, and other products, may be age-controlled. In addition, online merchants may be legally required to restrict the age of customers in other situations, such as at the point of access control to a gambling or adult-entertainment web site or chat room. Electronic commerce (e-commerce) merchants who do not fulfill their legal obligations to restrict access to age-controlled goods and services may be subject to fines, the loss of their license to do business, or other penalties.
However, in many e-commerce situations, an authorization check may be indicated for some online transactions, while other online transactions occur for which no check of authorization is needed. For example, at an online DVD rental site, the online rental of some DVD's may be restricted to customers who meet a minimum age threshold, while other DVD's are not associated with a minimum age restriction. Similarly, online grocery store sites that sell alcohol and tobacco products, which can be associated with various age threshold restrictions, typically also sell other products that are not associated with a minimum age threshold.
Authorization checks for online or other e-commerce transactions can consume valuable time and other resources for both a customer and a merchant server associated with an online transaction and may be seen by the customer as an annoyance. Therefore, it is to the advantage of parties associated with an e-commerce transaction for authorization checks to be limited to online transactions in which they are determined to be appropriate.
Furthermore, current systems that determine authorization, such as an authorization based on age, typically do not provide documentation of the age calculation or other authorization check associated with a given online transaction, although such documentation could become very useful if an e-commerce merchant is accused of failing to comply with authorization regulations. When an authorization check is called into doubt, without a record of the online transaction and the associated online identification check, the online merchant may have difficulty establishing his or her compliance with the law.
Other forms of authorization requirements unrelated to age may also exist at an online point of sale or other online point of control for access to a product, service, game, information source or the like. For example, access to some online gaming sites may be restricted based on various criteria. Even if age-checking or other authorization is not mandated by law, some products and situations exist for which a merchant may voluntarily wish to verify that customers' authorization has been checked, such as for insurance or other internal management purposes.
Hence, it will be appreciated from the foregoing that there is a need for authorization verification systems and methods that determine whether an authorization check is indicated for a given online transaction and that provide a record of the fact that a point-of-access-control authorization determination was performed for online transactions requiring age-based or other types of authorization.